Process and apparatus for treating petroleum oil



April 8, 1930. A. G. BOGARDUS' I 3,753,76g

I PROCESS AND APPARATUS FOR TREATING PETROLEUM OIL Original Filed Jan.30, 1925 Patented Apr. 8, 1930 NITED STATES PATENT OFFICE ARTHUR G.BOGARDU$, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOB TO UNIVERSAL OIL PRODUCTSCOMPANY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF SOUTH DAKOTA.

PROCESS AND APPARATUS FOR TREATING PETROLEUM OIL Application filedJanuary 30, 1925. Serial No. 5,704. Renewed July 2, 1928.

This invention relates to improvements in method and apparatus fortreating petroleum oil, and refers more particularly to the treatment ofhydrocarbon oils under heat and pressure to produce substantial yieldsof commercial products therefrom.

In the particular embodiment of the present invention, it relates to theuse of alternate or inter-connected zones of reaction, and contemplatesthe cutting in and cutting out of the reaction zones from the system,without any danger of leakage of hot oil into the zone cut out of thesystem, the pressure of course, being gradually reduced after it hasbeen cut out.

The particular method and apparatus for preventing leaka e of hot oil orVapors past the valves into t e reaction zone in which the pressurehas'just been reduced, consists in introducing to the communicating linea balancing liquid for instance, oil which ma be at atmospherictemperature, but whic must be materially below the temperature of theoil in the system, and maintaining a zone of said liquid under such' atemperature at a pressure substantially the same, or slightly above theressure maintained on the system in order t at any leakage into the zoneof reduced pressure will be a leakage of liquid preferably oil, which ismaintained at a temperature materially below the temperature of thesystem.

Various advantages and objects of the invention will appear from thefollowing description, as well as its utility.

In the drawings, Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic side elevational view partlyin vertical section, illustrating one t pe of system for the treatmentof oil embo ying my invention.

Fig. 2 is a greatly enlarged detailed view showing the arrangement ofthe variouszones.

The char 'ng stock to be treated in the system is wit drawn from anysuitable source of supply and forced by means of the pump 1 through theinlet line 2 in which is interposed the valve 2', into the upper portionof the dephlegmator 3, or said 0 ar stock ma be introduced directly intot e eating so coi s through the line 4 controlled by valve 5. Thecharging stock which does not vaporize in the dephlegmator 3 flows downthe reflux leg 6, and eitherunder the hydrostatic head pressure of thecolumn of oil in the leg- 6, or by means of a forced mechanicalpressure, for instance, a pump, discharges through the line 7 to theheating coils 8 mounted in the side fired furnace 9, which is heated bythe burners 10, the gases of combustion being generated in thecombustion chamber 11 assing through the flue 12 and downwardly into thecracking chamber 13 counter-current to the flow of oil and passing outthrough the stack 14. The oil passing through the heating coils 8 isdischarged by means of the transfer line 14 into the header 15 whichcommunicates' with alternate or interconnected reaction chambers 16,which preferably take the form ofwvertically disposed enlarged chambers."lfhese enlarged chambers may be in sulated as shown at 17, for thepurpose of preventing undue radiation of heat, It being the preferableform of invention that'these chambers are not heated. The chambers maybe mounted on the supports 18 and be provided with the liquid residuedrawofls 19.

controlled by valves 20 positioned at various heightsin order that theliquid mayibe continuously drawn ofi.

Each of the chambers is provided with the vapor outlet pipe 21controlled by valves 22 and 23 joining at the point 24 with the singlevapor pipe 25 in which is interposed valve 26, which vapor pipe 25commumcates with the lower ortion o the dephlegmator.

The vapors disc arged into the lower portionof the dephlegmator passupwardly therethrough, counter-current to the flow of charging stock,causing a heat interchange, and consequent vaporization of the lightfractions of charging stock and condensation of the heavy ends'of thevapors. The reflux condensate and charging stock flow down through thereflux leg 6 and may be returned to the heating coils as explained.

The uncondensed vapors are discharged from the top of the dephlegmatorinto the vapor line 27, in which is interposed the valve 28, and arecondensed in the condenser coil 29 mounted in condenser box 80, thedistillate flowing out through line 31 to the receiver 32 equipped withthe liquid drawoif line 33 controlle by valve 34, and with theincondensable gas relief line 35 controlled by valve 36; the receivermay also be equip ed with the pressure gauge 37 and sig t glass gauge38.

Referring now to some of the particular features of the presentinvention, in the line 15 are a plurality of sets of valves 39 and 40.Between each of the sets of valves and communicating with the line 15,are lines '41 and 42, in which are interposed valves 43 and 44. Thelines 41 and 42 communicate with a single line 45 which in turncommunicates with a header 46, which latter is connected with the inletline 47. The inlet 47 is provided with the accumulator 48 and pump 49.The header 46, in addition-to being provided with the communicating pipe45 terminates in the extensions 50 and 51, in which are interposedrespectively valves 52 and 53. The lines 50 and 51 communicate by meansof short nipples 54 with the vapor line 21. The lines 41 and 42 areprovided with the valves 55, which are adapted to be open in case it isdesired to drain the line.

The arrangement thus described, is such that a liquid medium preferablyoil at at mospheric temperature, or at a temperature materiallybelow thetemperature maintained on the balance of the system, may be forced bymeans of the pump through the line 47 into the header 46 downwardlythrough the line 45 and the line 41 into the header 15, and the valves43 and 39 being slightly open, will discharge into the right handreaction chamber 16. The function of the arrangement just described, isas follows: Assume that it is necessary to divert the discharge of theheated oil from the heating coil into one of the chambers 16, forinstance, where said chamher is partially filled with coke or carbon,and it is desired to clean out same without interrupting the continuousoperation of the process. Assume that the ri ht hand chamber is the onebeing cut out. he valves 39 in the line 15 are then closed, causing allof the heated oil flowin through the transfer line 14 to discharge intothe left hand chamber, the valves 40 being open. The pressure which hasbeen maintained on the system is gradually reduced in the right handchamber 16, by any of the well known methods,.and because of the faultyconstruction of valves 39,

hot oil ordinarily would leak past these valves into this chamber ofreduced pressure, causing combustion, and sometimes explosions. Toobviate this dangerous practice and allow for the ready cutting in andout of.

reaction chambers of this character without interrupting the continuousoperation, the present invention was designed. A zone of liquid mediumpreferably oil, is maintained between the two valves 39, said oil beingmaintained under the same pressure, or slight 1y above the pressure ofthe cracking system, thus any oil leaking past the valves 39 into thechamber 16 will be relatively cool oil which will not submit itself tocombustion or explosion.

As a further feature of the invention, the cold oil zone may bemaintained not only between the two reaction chambers but also in thevapor line of the system from the zone of reaction being cut out of thesystem. Thus,

the flow of vapors which ordinarily would.

flow backwards through the valves 23 and 22 into the chamber 16, will beprevented'on account of the zone of relatively cool oil under pressure.

This latter function is accomplished by closing the valves 22 and 23 inthe vapor line leading from the chamber, from which the supply of oilhas been diverted, and in supplying the cool oil to the neutral zonebetween the closed valves 22 and 23, either through the line 50 or line51 and the associated line 54, depending on whether the right or left,hand chamber is being cut out of the system, the supply of cool oil tothe neutral zones between the valves 22 and 23 being controlled by thevalves 52 and 53 positioned in the lines 50 and 51 respectively.

In the enlarged detailed illustration in Fig. 2, A designates the zonein which the pressure of the system is maintained on the heated oil.Zone B represents a zone in which is maintained a pressure of coolliquid equal to or slightly above the pressure maintained in A. Zone Cis the zone of reduced pressure. It is of course, understood that thevalves in the cool oil lines are closed as tightly as is possible, itbeing the object of this invention not to introduce the cool oil orliquid into the zone of reduced pressure in any substantial amount, butmerely to replace the usual leakage of hot oil into said zone of reducedpressure with cool oil.

It is to be noted that I have provided a plurality of sets of valves toinsure safer operation. It is to be understood that the pressuremaintained by the pump 49 may be supplied by means of the usual raw oilfeed pump, a reflux pump, any auxiliary pump, or any other means ofpressure supply with or without a ressure accumulator.

It is to be urther understood that the essence of my invention isdirected to cover oil at any temperature, and also hydrocarbon or othervapor at any temperature or pressure, and also any combination ofliquid; vapor, or gas. The functionof course of the accumulator 48 is totake care of the fluctuation and result in the maintenance of a moreuniform pressure, and also to provide reserve pressure in case the oilpump stops operating. 7

Referring to Fi 2, assume that the cold liquid being supp ied to thezone B comes transmitted directly to zone B would be higher than theprocess pressure by the difference between pipe frictions directlythrough the tubes as compared to the pipe friction directly to zone B;This point merely simplifies the practical use of the idea.

I claim as my invention:

1. A method of treating etroleum oil, consisting in heating the oil,discharging said heated oil into one of a plurality of interconnectedzones of reaction,.where separation of vapors and precipitation ofcarbon takes place, removing the vapors, dephlegmating, condensing andcollecting same, maintaining a superatmospheric pressure on the saidzone,

, interrupting the discharge of heated oil into said zone of reactionand diverting same to another of the interconnected zones, graduallyreducin the pressurein the first mentioned zonew ile simultaneouslycausing the flow of oil has been diverted to said first mentioned zone.

4. An apparatus for cracking hydrocarbon oils in a continuous mannerunder superatmospheric pressure comprising oil heating tubes disposedwithin a furnace, means for passing 011 through said heating tubes, aplurality of reaction chambers, a conduit interconnecting said reactionchambers for alternate use, means connecting said conduit and said oilheating tubes, a pair of spaced apart valves positioned in said conduitbetween said connecting means and each of said reaction chambers, eachair of said valves ada ted when closed to lsolate the section of saiconduit extending between the valves of the pair which is closed, and toprevent flow of oil into one of said reaction chambers, a drain openingin the section between each pair of valves for removing material fromsaid section when isolated without permitting material removed throughsaid drain 0 en ing from re-entering the apparatus, an independentlyoperable valves for controlling said drain openings.

ARTHUR G. BOGARDUS.

' system pressure to be' imposed on the zone into which the discharge ofheated oil has been diverted, preventing leakage of heated oil into thezone'of reduced pressure by maintaining a neutral zone of oil in thevapor connection between the zones of reaction at temperature materiallybelow the temperature of the oil being treated, under a pressuresubstantially the same as the pressure on the j system.

for heating and 2. In an apparatus for treating oils, the combinationwith interconnected zonesof reaction having va or discharges, of meansdischarging heated oil to said zones of reaction, valved passagewayscommunicatingwbetween the zones of reaction, and also tween the vapordischarges,

leads communicating with the valved passageways, means including a pumpfor introducing and maintaining a body of liquid,

materially below the temperature of the heated oil, under pressure insaid leads to provide a balancing zone when one of the zones of reactionis cut out of the system.

3. A method of the class described, con-' sisting in introducing oil toone of alternate reaction zones, in diverting the flow of oil from saidzone to the other of said alternate reaction zones, in maintaining asuperatmospheric pressure on the oil in the last mentioned reactionzone, in isolating a section of the transfer line to and a section ofthe vapor line from said first mentioned reaction zone, and inintroducing to said isolated sections a medium under pressure, toprevent the flow of oil or vapors from the zone to which the

